SHARP COLLECTION
Apologeticum (1655)
Quintus Tertullian
Tertullian was the first Christian theologian to write in Latin. It is said that his genius helped shape Latin Christianity. Ignored by the medieval church, he was rediscovered during the Renaissance and acclaimed for his deep attachment to the values of early Christianity.
Born in Carthage, he was the son of a centurion in the Roman army. As a young man he attended bloody spectacles where condemned criminals, dressed as mythic gods, were burned alive. Tertullian describes himself as draining "the cup of lust to the dregs," as "blind and without the light of the Lord." When he converted from paganism, he embraced Christianity with all the ardor of his impetuous nature.
Written during the second-century persecution of the Christians in Carthage, Apologeticum is a classic of ancient Christian literature. "[Tertullian] can reason soundly," writes the scholar T. R_ Glover. "He can declaim .... His epigrams rival Tacitus, and there is even in his rhetoric a conviction and a passion which Cicero never reaches."
Addressing the provicial Roman governors, Tertullian suggests that if they are afraid to consider the case of the Christians, he hopes the truth of his Apologeticum will reach their ears. It is an outrage that Christians are condemned irrespective of their guilt or innocence. Tertullian refutes charges that Christians are atheists. They worship God -one God. Christians turn the other cheek when the mob attacks. "Far be it that a divine school should vindicate itself with human fire" He attacks prejudice against Christians. They do not cause public disasters. if the Nile overflows, the cry is always "Throw the Christians to the lions," (Christianos ad leonem). Christians will find victory in death. They would rather be condemned than fall away from God. Pagans condemn them. God acquits them (A deo absolvimur).
Tertullian has been called the greatest Christian writer in the West before St. Augustine. It is reputed that the martyred St. Cyprian .never passed a day without reading some portion of Tertullian's works
His daily request was "Da magistrum" or "Give me the master."
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